O Give Thanks

 O Give Thanks

July 31, 2026

Psalm 107:1-2 (NKJV) 

1 Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for [He is] good^h2896a! For His mercy^H2617a [endures] forever. 2 Let the redeemed of the LORD say [so,] Whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy,

It is good to give thanks to the Lord. His goodness and mercy are far greater than the English words describe. He is goodness and mercy in a way that transcends all that we Think of as good. From the Strongs dictionary, we learn that this word includes concepts of grace, favor, delight and happiness. God is good in more ways than we can comprehend,

And mercy, checed, is likewise rich in meaning. It includes ideas of lovingkindness, mercy and beauty. He loves us far more than we appreciate. As John puts it, “God so loved the world that He gave His only son...” We give thanks to the Lord who loves us so. 

According to the psalmist, our response is to say so. If your heart is happy, let your face know it, and then tell someone of God’s mercy and grace. As the saying goes;

The Lord is good all the time,

And all the time, the Lord is good.

——————————

Strong's Definitions: 

H2617a חֶסֶד  cheçed, kheh'-sed; from H2616; kindness; by implication (towards God) piety; rarely (by opposition) reproof, or (subjectively) beauty:—favour, good deed(-liness, -ness), kindly, (loving-) kindness, merciful (kindness), mercy, pity, reproach, wicked thing.

h2896a. טוֹב tob; from 2895; pleasant, agreeable, good:--

beautiful(11), beneficial(1), best(7), better(75), better a good(1), charming*(1), cheerful(3), choice(2), delightful(1), fair(1), favor(1), favorable(3), favorably(3), festive(1), fine(3), fine ones(1), fit(1), generous*(1), glad(1), good(196), good and to those who(1), good is better(1), good man(3), good men(1), good-looking*(1), gracious(1), handsome(3), handsome*(1), happy(1), holiday*(3), intelligent*(1), kind(1), like*(1), man(1), more*(2), one(1), one who(1), one who(1), one who...

The Year of the Lord

 The Year of the Lord

July 30, 2026

Isaiah 61:1-2 (NKJV) 

1 “The Spirit of the Lord GOD [is] upon Me, Because the LORD has anointed Me To preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to [those who are] bound; 2 To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn,

This is one of the most remarkable prophecies from Isaiah, because it was this exact verse that Jesus read to proclaim the beginning of his earthly ministry. (Luke 4:16-19) of all the prophets, Isaiah saw most clearly the coming of Messiah Jesus. The accuracy of his vision is a proof that the Word of God is true and reliable. 

The other thing about this passage is that it not only outlines the ministry of Jesus, but also describes the ministry that we also have in the world. Jesus bids us to preach the gospel, heal the sick and set the captives free. The ministry of healing the brokenhearted is particularly relevant today as we are surrounded by people damaged by broken relationships and confused by the teaching of the world to the point that they don’t know who they are. Many are even confused about their gender. The world needs Jesus and the ministry of reconciliation. So if you are a Believer in Jesus, it is time to stand up, pick up the scroll, and proclaim “the Lord has anointed me…”

Old and New

 New and Old

July 29, 2026

Isaiah 11:5 (NKJV)

5 And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins.

Isaiah 59:17 (NKJV) 

For He put on righteousness as a breastplate, And a helmet of salvation on His head; He put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, And was clad with zeal as a cloak.

Ephesians 6:13-17 (NKJV) 

13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. 14 Stand therefore, having girded yourwaist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; 16 above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. 17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God;

There is a strain of thinking among Christians that model themselves after the New Testament church, and minimize or ignore the Old Testament. Of course it is good to emulate the New Testament church, but we must not ignore the foundation teaching that formed the concepts taught by Jesus and his disciples. One example of this is the teaching on the armor of God found in Ephesians 6. This is normally taught in isolation without acknowledging that this imagery comes directly  from the prophet Isaiah. You can’t fully appreciate the New Testament teaching without putting it into the context of centuries of Jewish revelation and teaching. Jesus said that he is the fulfillment of the law, so in order to understand Him, you need to study the context of His culture and the times in which he lived. The parables in particular are set in the context of first century life and were understood by the people who were familiar with farming, fishing and building and whose moral framework was solidly anchored in the temple worship of that day. Therefore, it is Important to study all of the Bible to fully understand the teaching of Jesus in the proper context.

Singing Scripture- 2

 Singing Scripture- 2

July 28, 2026

Isaiah 53:5 (NKJV) 

But He [was] wounded for our transgressions, [He was] bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace [was] upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.

Isaiah 55:12 (NKJV) 

“For you shall go out with joy, And be led out with peace; The mountains and the hills Shall break forth into singing before you, And all the trees of the field shall clap [their] hands.

Yesterday we were talking about singing scripture and there are two more verses in today’s reading that have been used in gospel songs. Pastor Joseph used to sing a wonderful gospel version of Isaiah 53. I couldn’t find anything like it on YouTube, though there are many other songs using this verse. I still prefer the Maranatha Gospel Tabernacle version! We could really rock the house in those days. In fact, we danced so much that the floor bounced and the beams threatened to give way. Those were the days!

The second scripture song could also cause dancing in the aisles. We sang that one in an Israeli folk dance style. That one is on YouTube:

https://youtu.be/M915v9r1T6M?is=6KN-GBy_seQaFvV1

At that time, I was living in the Squirrel Hill section of Pittsburgh, which was a Jewish neighborhood, so we had several Messianic Jews in our congregation and sang several songs in that style. One of my favorites was psalm 133 sung in Hebrew. That’s still the only passage I know by heart in Hebrew. And, of course, we danced to that as well. Maybe that’s one key to memorizing scripture. When you clap your hands and move your feet, you can’t help but to remember the words. So get your whole body involved and sing some scripture today.

P.S. If you are interested, many of the scriptures I use in my blog come from the daily reading plan in the Blue Letter Bible. I’m currently using the Life Journey 1 year plan.

https://www.blueletterbible.org/dailyreading/

Singing Scripture

 Singing Scripture 

July 27, 2026

Isaiah 51:11 (NKJV) 

So the ransomed of the LORD shall return, And come to Zion with singing, With everlasting joy on their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness; Sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

Isaiah 52:7 (NKJV) 

How beautiful upon the mountains Are the feet of him who brings good news, Who proclaims peace , Who brings glad tidings of good [things,] Who proclaims salvation, Who says to Zion, “Your God reigns!”

Psalm 92:1-2 (NKJV) 

1 A Psalm. A Song for the Sabbath day.night, 

[It is] good to give thanks to the LORD, And to sing praises to Your name, O Most High; 2 To declare Your lovingkindness in the morning, And Your faithfulness every night,

In today’s scripture reading, I came across three verses that we used to sing. I miss the singing of scripture. It was a good way to memorize the scripture and to encourage yourself in the Word. Once you get one of these choruses in your head it can stick with you all day. That can be a good thing, helping you meditate on the Word in the midst of daily activities. If you are like me and grew up with these songs, you’re probably singing them in your head right now. But if not, look them up on YouTube and learn a new way to experience scripture today.

Eagles

July 24, 2026

Isaiah 40:30-31 (NKJV) 30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary, And the young men shall utterly fall, 31 But those who wait on the LORD Shall renew [their] strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.

Truth and Deception

 Truth and Deception

July 22, 2026

1 Timothy 4:1-2 (NKJV) 

1 Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, givingheed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, 2 speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron,

How many families today are torn apart by lies and deception. One may be vaccinated and the other not, or one voted republican and the other democrat, or one hurt the other and the other can’t bring themselves to forgive. Both sides believe that they are right. “My truth”, and “your truth”. But they refuse to speak to each other because of the differences. It seems that forgiveness and reconciliation are impossible because neither party will acknowledge any fault of their own. So how do you manage these types of family conflicts when people can’t even agree on what is true? They are like Pilate who famously asked Jesus “What is truth?”, but who didn’t want to know the answer, standing in front of him.

John 18:38 (NKJV) 

Pilate said to Him, “What is truth?” And when he had said this, he went out again to theJews, and said to them, “I find no fault in Him at all.

Those who believe in Jesus know where to find truth. Jesus said, “I am the truth”.

John 14:6 (NKJV) 

Jesussaid to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

So how do we reach people who refuse to believe in objective truth? Logic fails to convince such a one as even mathematics and logic will not prevail unless one believes that they are based on truth. Being trained in physics, I find this hard to grasp as we were taught to test every hypothesis against experimental fact and objective reality. When a person has abandoned trust in reality it is very difficult to reach them.

It seems then that we need to rely on Jesus and the spirit of truth to war against the spirits of deception. It is a matter of spiritual warfare that cannot be won in the natural, but must be waged in the spiritual. Only when the deceiving spirits are silenced and driven out can a person see truth for what it is and receive Jesus as the way, the truth and the life. So if you have such a conflict in your family or circle of friends, pray to bind the spirits of deception and pray that the spirit of truth will touch their heart and change their mind. Jesus is the way to reach an unreachable person to heal and deliver them.

Lord Willing

 Lord Willing

July 20, 2026

James 4:13-17 (NKJV) 

13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city,spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; 14 whereas you do not know what [will happen] tomorrow. For what [is] your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. 15 Instead you [ought] to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” 16 But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. 17 Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do [it,] to him it is sin.

When I was growing up in the country, we had a saying that I think derived from this verse. If we were invited to go anywhere, the normal response was, “We’ll be there, Lord willing and the creek don’t rise,” this expressing goes back to before the roads were paved and bridges were built over the streams. If it rained too hard, the creeks would rise to where you couldn’t ford them easily and you would get you model-T stuck in the mud. Thus the expression. And then, everyone was familiar with the Bible, so the “Lord willing” part would remind them of this verse in James. It was a simpler time and most people were more aware of their reliance on God and the forces of nature. 

Now days, with our modern technology and paved roads, it takes a much more severe storm to flood the roads. We are more self reliant. Perhaps we need to remember that we are dependent on the Lord for simple things like waking up in the morning and taking a fresh breath. Boasting in our arrogance is certainly a modern trait, even though it was also present in James’ time. So remember the Lord as you go about your daily tasks, and remind yourself that you can complete them “If the Lord wills…”

River of God

 River of God

July 19, 2026

Psalm 46:4-7 (NKJV) 

4 [There is] a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God, The holy [place] of thetabernacle of the Most High. 5 God [is] in the midst of her, she shall not be moved; God shall help her, just at the break of dawn. 6 The nations raged, the kingdoms were moved; He uttered His voice, the earth melted. 7 The LORD of hosts [is] with us; The God of Jacob [is] our refuge. Selah

Another song we sang in the early days was “River of God”, based on Psalm 46. I think this one was particularly popular with us as the church was named Three Rivers Fellowship for a time. Of course, Pittsburgh is also known as the three rivers city as the Allegheny, Monongahela come together at the Point to form the Ohio RIver. The church had originally been named Maranatha Gospel Tabernacle when I first joined, then was renamed TRF when Pastor Joseph joined together with Pastors Dale and Dennis to bring three churches together into one. Anyway, we enjoyed singing about the river of God.

In the Bible, the river is frequently used to symbolize the flow of blessings. In Ezekiel 47 we see the river flowing out of the temple and the imagery is repeated in Revelation 22 where the River of Life flows out from the throne of God, providing healing for the nations.

Revelation 22:1-2 The River and the Tree of Life

1 Then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb, 2 in the middle of its street. On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

So today, I pray for rivers of blessing to flow into your life, and through your life to the nations. The flow of the Holy Spirit works through us to bring blessings and healing to those around us. Let the streams make you glad for the LORD of hosts is with us.

The Redeemed of the Lord

 The Redeemed of the Lord

July 18, 2026

Isaiah 35:10 (NKJV) 

And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, And come to Zion with singing, Witheverlasting joy on their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness, And sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

I got saved and baptized in the Spirit during the charismatic renewal of the early 70’s. One feature of that revival was we sang a lot of scripture songs. This verse in Isaiah was one of the scriptures that was used as the basis for the chorus “Therefore the Redeemed of the Lord.” If was a good song for me because I got saved out of a great a deal of turmoil and sadness. I was coming out of a failed marriage relationship and had left one graduate school after two years of study in high energy physics and was starting over at another school to study Biophysics. It was a time when the Lord was tearing down a lot of what my life had been built on and was building new foundations in Him. I needed joy and gladness to chase away the sorrow and sadness. We sang many such songs on those days and they helped me to rebuild a life of joy based on serving the Lord. Another song was “Mourning into Dancing” from Psalm 30:

Psalm 30:11-12 (KJV) 

11 Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing: thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness; 12 To the end that [my] glory may sing praise to thee, and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks unto thee for ever.

The joy of the Lord is our strength, so whatever difficulties you may be facing today, know that you can return to the Lord with singing and obtain joy and gladness. Sorrow and sadness will flee away.

The Way of the Lord

 The Way of the Lord

July 17, 2026

Isaiah 30:15a (NKJV) 

For thus says the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel: “In returning and rest you shallbe saved; In quietness and confidence shall be your strength.” …

Isaiah 30:21 (NKJV) 

Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,”Whenever you turn to the right hand Or whenever you turn to the left.

How do you know the way of the Lord? Many ask the question but few listen to the answer. The prophet says that the way of the Lord is to rest in Him. To have a quiet confidence in Him and to listen to His still, small voice from behind you that tells when to go left of right. We want a dramatic answer and a plan laid out beforehand, but that is not the way of the Lord. The way of faith is to walk in confidence, being sensitive to His voice,  but not always knowing which way to go until it is time to turn. As the old saying goes goes, “The Lord is always on time, but not on your time!” Sometimes he gives a word which gives us a long range goal or vision. There are many examples of that in the book of Isaiah, but He usually holds the specifics until just the time that they are needed. It is one of the mystery of faith that we are to walk according to His word, even when we don’t know the specific steps until it is time to turn to the right or to the left. 

So commit to walk by faith and listen for His voice. His voice is sure, but it not loud so you need to quiet your soul, rest in Him, and just step out. The voices of the world are loud and incessant, so you need to block those out and listen for His voice. “Quietness and confidence shall be your strength,”

Perfect Peace

 Perfect Peace

July 16, 2026

Isaiah 26:3 (NKJV) 

You will keep [him] in perfect peace, [Whose] mind [is] stayed [on You,] Because hetrusts in You.

Isaiah 28:16 (NKJV) 

Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: “Behold, I lay in Zion a stone for a foundation, A triedstone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation; Whoever believes will not act hastily.

The prophet Isaiah, in the midst of proclaiming death and destruction to rebellious nations, inserts words of hope. He foresaw a day when the Messiah would come and bring perfect peace. We now live in that day. Jesus is the sure foundation, and when our mind is stayed on Him, we can have perfect peace. That doesn’t mean that we won’t see trouble, but being built on a sure foundation, we will be able to stand through the storm. That is perfect peace. Not lack of conflict, but a confidence to endure through whatever may come. So today, let your mind be stayed in Him, that you may have perfect peace. Shalom.

Mercy

 Mercy

July 15, 2026

Psalm 51:1-4 (NKJV) 

1. Have mercy upon me, O God, According to Your lovingkindness; According to themultitude of Your tender mercies, Blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, And cleanse me from my sin. 3 For I acknowledge my transgressions, And my sin [is] always before me. 4 Against You, You only, have I sinned, And done [this] evil in Your sight-- That You may be found just when You speak, [And] blameless when You judge.

Psalm 51:10-13 (NKJV) 

10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. 11 Donot cast me away from Your presence, And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, And uphold me [by Your] generous Spirit. 13 [Then] I will teach transgressors Your ways, And sinners shall be converted to You.

I woke up this morning with Psalm 51 on my heart. There are people on our prayer list that are going through very trying times, and this scripture seems appropriate to the season. We all need God’s mercy and grace, especially in times of trouble. Some trouble just comes upon us and other trouble is the result of our own making. This was the case in Psalm 51 where King David brought down a lot of trouble on himself and his family by sinning with Bathsheba. Whatever the source of our troubles, we need to rely on God’s mercy to get us through. It is his lovingkindness that gives us hope for a better day.

I especially appreciate verse 10, where the psalmist prays for a clean heart, a steadfast spirit and a return to joy. These are all crucial factors in weathering the storms of life. So if you are one of those going through troubles times, call upon the Lord to have mercy. When he restores the joy of your salvation, you will not only be able to rejoice in your own salvation, but you will be able to turn and help someone else, “Give me a clean heart, that I may serve you” goes the old gospel song, and that Is a good prayer for today,

https://youtu.be/J_3HEScberw?is=kK-8-zIELF5UUZVt